Apologies for this week on Digi2000 still being a little Block Party-heavy, and light on the usual gaming nonsense. It's a consequence of my brain still being a little Block Party-heavy... and remaining profoundly exhausted from Saturday - and the previous few weeks.
But! Lots of you voted or left comments over whether I should have a crack at crowd-funding something in the Biffovision/Digifest ads vein. Enough of you have come back to generously offer your support that I've decided I'm going to give it a go.
And it's going to be called this: 'Mr Biffo's Found Footage'.
That's probably all you need to know at this point in time. The name kind of tells you exactly what it is. But I'll tell you a bit more anyway. I'm nice like this: that.
But! Lots of you voted or left comments over whether I should have a crack at crowd-funding something in the Biffovision/Digifest ads vein. Enough of you have come back to generously offer your support that I've decided I'm going to give it a go.
And it's going to be called this: 'Mr Biffo's Found Footage'.
That's probably all you need to know at this point in time. The name kind of tells you exactly what it is. But I'll tell you a bit more anyway. I'm nice like this: that.
THE IDEA
So. The idea is this: each of the six ten-minute episodes will feature another volume from my vast collection of VHS found footage tapes. That means I'm not just confined to ads, but we'll have snippets of old TV shows, home videos, music clips, cartoons - basically, anything goes.
The inspiration was staring me in the face: I've got a copy of some stupid sketches I filmed when I was at school. They were recorded onto a tape by our computer studies teacher - and between the sketches, it keeps dropping back into 1970 Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, or other clips he'd filmed around the school. It sort of added to the woozy, destabilising, surrealism - the way the tape would glitch, and flicker, and unrelated images would interrupt one another.
Additionally, around that age, I used to make a spoof newspaper called The Gat, which was partly put together by cutting up real newspapers to make something new. Much like how the Reversible Sedgewick ad was spliced together from about six different sources.
NOW KNOWN
For what is now to be known as Mr Biffo's Found Footage, I wanted to find a format which held it all together, but also allowed me to be completely free-wheeling in the style of a sketch show. And then a wiser soul than I suggested that the rough, retro, glitchy, VHS-style itself is the format. Which is when it clicked into place. It's sort of what I've always done, and seems to suit what I do.
When I've done Digi fake ads in teletext over the last few months, it seemed like the outdated medium itself added something. When doing the videos for Digifest, I wanted to find a way to recreate that retro, lo-fi look that teletext offers, as I thought it'd enhance the funnies. Not least because we were going to be having a talk by Jason Robertson at Block Party, on retrieving teletext pages from VHS tapes. I thought I'd offer the original footage that was on those tapes.
So, for all the reasons above, I'm sticking with that style for Mr Biffo's Found Footage, and hopefully be able to go all out with it.
Unfortunately, that does somewhat risk comparisons to the likes of Tim & Eric - not least given that Digi-esque humour isn't a million miles away from what they do. That's just something I'll have to swallow, though, and hope that within it I can just stay true to what I've always done.
I've been here before. I couldn't see the comparison, but when we did Biffovision we had people saying we'd ripped off Look Around You. Which was ironic, as Peter Serafinowicz once told me that Look Around You was influenced by Digitiser. Ultimately, we all owe a debt to Monty Python - which Biffovision did shamelessly pay homage to. The "10 points to Gryffindor" cutaways were even filmed just feet from where they shot the Fish-Slapping Dance.
So. The idea is this: each of the six ten-minute episodes will feature another volume from my vast collection of VHS found footage tapes. That means I'm not just confined to ads, but we'll have snippets of old TV shows, home videos, music clips, cartoons - basically, anything goes.
The inspiration was staring me in the face: I've got a copy of some stupid sketches I filmed when I was at school. They were recorded onto a tape by our computer studies teacher - and between the sketches, it keeps dropping back into 1970 Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, or other clips he'd filmed around the school. It sort of added to the woozy, destabilising, surrealism - the way the tape would glitch, and flicker, and unrelated images would interrupt one another.
Additionally, around that age, I used to make a spoof newspaper called The Gat, which was partly put together by cutting up real newspapers to make something new. Much like how the Reversible Sedgewick ad was spliced together from about six different sources.
NOW KNOWN
For what is now to be known as Mr Biffo's Found Footage, I wanted to find a format which held it all together, but also allowed me to be completely free-wheeling in the style of a sketch show. And then a wiser soul than I suggested that the rough, retro, glitchy, VHS-style itself is the format. Which is when it clicked into place. It's sort of what I've always done, and seems to suit what I do.
When I've done Digi fake ads in teletext over the last few months, it seemed like the outdated medium itself added something. When doing the videos for Digifest, I wanted to find a way to recreate that retro, lo-fi look that teletext offers, as I thought it'd enhance the funnies. Not least because we were going to be having a talk by Jason Robertson at Block Party, on retrieving teletext pages from VHS tapes. I thought I'd offer the original footage that was on those tapes.
So, for all the reasons above, I'm sticking with that style for Mr Biffo's Found Footage, and hopefully be able to go all out with it.
Unfortunately, that does somewhat risk comparisons to the likes of Tim & Eric - not least given that Digi-esque humour isn't a million miles away from what they do. That's just something I'll have to swallow, though, and hope that within it I can just stay true to what I've always done.
I've been here before. I couldn't see the comparison, but when we did Biffovision we had people saying we'd ripped off Look Around You. Which was ironic, as Peter Serafinowicz once told me that Look Around You was influenced by Digitiser. Ultimately, we all owe a debt to Monty Python - which Biffovision did shamelessly pay homage to. The "10 points to Gryffindor" cutaways were even filmed just feet from where they shot the Fish-Slapping Dance.
KICK-OFF
So, hopefully next week I'll be going live with a Kickstarter campaign.
I'm keeping the threshold low - we've not properly priced it up yet, but it'll be around £3,500 for six episodes.
Which, by any estimation of TV budgets, is eye-wateringly low, but I'm not sure I'll be able to break beyond the Digitiser2000 audience.
If we can blow through that, though, I'll be very happy, and it'll obviously expand the scope of what I'm intending to do.
Talking of Digi2000 - Found Footage will be a sister project. I know it feels like I'm constantly putting my hand out asking for money, but our Digi2000 donor fund will remain open - and Found Footage won't take away from Digi2000 in any shape or form. It'll continue as it always has done these past two years.
A lot of you have indicated that you don't want rewards, and would rather I invested all the money you give back into the project itself.
With that in mind, I will most likely keep any physical rewards to a minimum - but will be offering things like credits, a chance to be in a sketch, tickets to a London premier/launch party, behind-the-scenes clips... And probably a DVD for those who want it (no point in doing a Blu-Ray given the lo-fi nature of the footage).
So, thanks to everyone who said they'd support this - I'm doing it purely because so many of you seem to want more. It's genuinely exciting, and I can't wait to do this: get going with this: it.
So, hopefully next week I'll be going live with a Kickstarter campaign.
I'm keeping the threshold low - we've not properly priced it up yet, but it'll be around £3,500 for six episodes.
Which, by any estimation of TV budgets, is eye-wateringly low, but I'm not sure I'll be able to break beyond the Digitiser2000 audience.
If we can blow through that, though, I'll be very happy, and it'll obviously expand the scope of what I'm intending to do.
Talking of Digi2000 - Found Footage will be a sister project. I know it feels like I'm constantly putting my hand out asking for money, but our Digi2000 donor fund will remain open - and Found Footage won't take away from Digi2000 in any shape or form. It'll continue as it always has done these past two years.
A lot of you have indicated that you don't want rewards, and would rather I invested all the money you give back into the project itself.
With that in mind, I will most likely keep any physical rewards to a minimum - but will be offering things like credits, a chance to be in a sketch, tickets to a London premier/launch party, behind-the-scenes clips... And probably a DVD for those who want it (no point in doing a Blu-Ray given the lo-fi nature of the footage).
So, thanks to everyone who said they'd support this - I'm doing it purely because so many of you seem to want more. It's genuinely exciting, and I can't wait to do this: get going with this: it.
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